CLEVELAND — Cleveland police chief Calvin Williams is warning agitators against violence at the Republican National Convention and said he’s prepared to do anything he needs to do to prevent damage to the city.
Williams delivered a message to agitators planning to descend on Cleveland during a briefing with reporters.
“Come up and talk to me: the black guy in the white hat and the white shirt — the dark-skinned black guy in the white hat and the white shirt,” Williams said. “If you have a different agenda, then we got an issue, we got a problem and we’re going to do everything we can to disrupt that agenda if it’s pertaining to violence and property disruption in the city.”
Williams said police spent a great deal of time on Monday night responding to calls about suspicious individuals dressed in all black and wearing masks. In one instance, Williams said his officers encountered individuals carrying gas masks and slingshots gathering in the city and confiscated the items because they were prohibited in the area.
“What are you going to do with a slingshot in Cleveland? In any urban area?” Williams said. “So I just want to tell them: That’s your cause, that’s your choice, but if you want to do something positive you want to get your message out, let us know and we’ll help you do that in a non-violent way.”
Three individuals were arrested on Tuesday morning while trying to get their message out by scaling the flagpoles outside Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and hanging an anti-Donald Trump banner.
Anti-Trump activists scale flag poles outside Rock and Roll Hall of Fame calling for ban on fracking, no border wall pic.twitter.com/SChfjeZhb5
— Cory Shaffer (@cory_shaffer) July 19, 2016
The protests surrounding the convention have not devolved into chaos and riots thus far, but the potential for violence could grow as Trump’s formal nomination gets closer.
